Fisherfolk group Pamalakaya Pilipinas on Sunday aired its opposition against the order issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA) directing the importation of 25,000 metric tons of fish.
“How disappointing that in the midst of the crisis in agri-fisheries production, the Marcos administration still chooses to import at the further expense of our local fishing industry,” the group lamented in a statement.
Under Special order no. 1002 dated Nov. 10 signed by DA Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, DA will import 25 MT of frozen round scad (galunggong), bigeye scad, mackerel, bonito, and moonfish amid the closed fishing season this November until January 31, 2023.
Pamalakaya said the government should stop the declaration of closed fishing season and fish importation as this would bring devastation, especially to small local fisherfolks.
“Our fishers will be forced to sell their local produce at much lower prices in order to keep up with the imported fish that are relatively cheaper yet inferior in quality,“ it said.
“This means a huge loss to the income of fisherfolk who are already battered with high inflation and high cost of production,“ the group added.
Pamalakaya also pointed out that opening the floodgates for cheap imported fish would ”depreciate” the farm gate value of local fish further.
According to DA’s price monitoring as of Monday, Nov. 14, the price of Milkfish Bangus is Php 180 per kilo, Tilapia at Php 120, and local galunggong at Php 240.
Meanwhile, imported galunggong is priced at Php 200 per kilo, and Indian mackerel at Php 310.
